Prehistoric Middle East

Gobekli Tepe Q&A

by Sean Thomas, The First Post, 30 October 2006

The report from an archaeological dig in Turkey has sparked
interest worldwide, so Sean Thomas answers some frequently asked
questions:

Q: How do they know Gobekli Tepe is so old?

A: The archaeological team at Gobekli, working under
Klaus Schmidt, has used radiocarbon analysis on the soils adhering
to the stones. The analysis shows that the main stones at Gobekli
Tepe were erected between 10,000 and 9000 BC. The characteristics of
flint arrowheads found here confirm these dates.

Q: How big is the site?

A: So far, forty-odd standing stones (two to four metres
high) have been dug out. They are T-shaped and arranged in enclosed
circles, which cover several hundred square metres.

However, a broken, half-quarried stone has been found in a
limestone bed about a kilometre from the main site. It is nine
metres long, and was obviously intended to join the pillars at
Gobekli: so there may be other stones, as yet unearthed, that are
this big. Geomagnetic surveys imply that there are at least 250 more
standing stones buried at the site.

A: Farming did not start in this area until 8000 BC. It
is therefore certain that hunter-gatherers did build Gobekli: there
was no one else around. Klaus Schmidt speculates that large bands of
hunters congregated here during the construction. (Bones and
arrowheads support this thesis.) They then dispersed, perhaps
returning to Gobekli at specified times of the year.

In Depth

Q: Why was the site buried in 8,000 BC?

A: No one knows. But the way the dust is packed around
the stones shows that Gobekli was entombed deliberately, and with
some care.

Q: How do they know it's a temple?

A: Evidence of any domestic use is entirely lacking. No
remains of settled human habitation have been found nearby. But
human skeletons have been found, in telling positions, which
indicate that Gobekli was possibly a funerary complex, a shrine that
celebrated the life and death of the hunters. It seems people
brought the corpses of relatives here, and installed them in open
niches by the stones. The many rock carvings on the stones also
appear more ritualistic than domestic; likewise, the architectural
arrangement of Gobekli prefigures much later Stone Age temples -
like Avebury or Stonehenge.

Schmidt speculates that large bands of hunters came here during construction

Sean Thomas

Q: How do they know the recently uncovered sculpture is a
'reptile'?

A: They don't know. Schmidt thinks it may be a reptile
but isn't sure. Gobekli Tepe is so bizarre - and the newest finds so
mysterious - that no consensus has yet developed. Others believe the
sculpture shows a wolf, a cat, or some other mammal. It possibly
represents a kind of animal-spirit, watching over the dead.

Q: Is there really a link with the Garden of Eden?

A: The idea that the Eden story is a kind of allegorical
folk memory - of the switch from hunter-gathering to farming - is
not a new one: it's been canvassed by writer Hugh Brody, among
others. What is new is the combination of data that links Genesis to
this area of Turkey, and very early farming to this area: thus
placing a 'metaphorical Eden' arguably in these environs. However,
Klaus Schmidt emphasises that this is just a theory: "Gobekli Tepe
is extraordinary enough, without speculation".

Q: How does the world of archaeology perceive Gobekli?

A: Academics agree on the site's revolutionary
implications for our view of Stone Age civilisation and religion. No
one knew Neolithic people were this artistic and leisured. Harald
Hauptman at Heidelberg University believes the discoveries at
Gobekli rank with the first uncovering of cave paintings in Lascaux,
in France in the 1940s. South African expert in Palaeolithic art
David Lewis Williams calls Gobekli Tepe "the most important
archaeological dig anywhere in the world".